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South Korean PM resigns in wake of ferry disaster

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won bows to the nation after offering his resignation at the Central Government Complex in Seoul, South Korea on Sunday. Chung made the move over the government's handling of a deadly ferry sinking, blaming "deep-rooted evils" and societal irregularities for a tragedy that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Sun., April 27, 2014

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA—Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, the No. 2 official in the South Korean government, apologized and offered his resignation on Sunday, as the country remained angry and saddened over the sinking of a ferry that left 302 people, the vast majority of them high school students, dead or missing.

President Park Geun-hye quickly accepted his resignation but asked Chung to stay in his post until the government completes its rescue operations, said Min Kyung-wook, a presidential spokesman.

The government has come under fire as early investigations revealed loopholes in safety measures and lax regulatory enforcement that investigators said contributed to the sinking of the 6,825-ton ferry, the Sewol, on April 16.

It was also criticized for failing to respond quickly and efficiently to the crisis and for fumbling during the early stages of rescue operations.

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Public anger spilled onto the official website of Park’s office, where someone posted a message on Sunday to say “why you should not be the president.” The posting, which accused Park of failing to show leadership in the handling of the ferry disaster, attracted 200,000 views within 12 hours, as well as hundreds of supportive comments.

A somber-looking Chung accepted the criticism on Sunday when he offered “an apology to the people” during a nationally televised news conference. “When I saw the people’s sadness and fury, I thought it was natural for me to step down with an apology,” he said.

Chung is the highest-ranking government official to lose his job over the sinking, South Korea’s worst disaster since 1995, when a department store collapsed in Seoul, killing 501 people.

South Koreans were especially traumatized by the fact that most of the dead and missing were students on a class trip.

Many survivors reported that the crew repeatedly instructed passengers to stay inside while the ship was listing dangerously and gradually sinking off southeastern South Korea.

The ship’s captain, Lee Jun-seok, 69, and 14 other top members of the crew escaped the ferry in the first two coast guard ships to arrive at the scene. All of them are now under arrest on criminal charges, including accidental homicide.

The prime minister is a largely ceremonial post in South Korea, with the executive power concentrated in the president, and is sometimes fired when the government needs to soothe public anger after a major scandal or policy failure.

Park’s tumultuous first year in office has been rocked by scandals in domestic politics, as well as unusually high tensions with North Korea following its nuclear test early last year.

Under Park, the government has initiated a campaign to eliminate what it called “jongbuk,” or followers of the North Korean government, from South Korean society and its politics, asking the Constitutional Court to disband a small progressive party on charges of acting on the Communist North’s behalf. The political opposition accused Park of resorting to a Communist witch — a tactic her father, the former military strongman Park Chung-hee, was accused of using — to maintain her sway over domestic politics.

Prosecutors revealed last month that government agents fabricated evidence to build a spy case against a defector from North Korea. Separately, a former chief and senior officials at the government’s National Intelligence Service have been on trial on charges of directing an extensive online smear campaign against Park’s opponents ahead of her election in December 2012. They conducted the online campaign in the name of fighting pro-North activities on the web.

No evidence has emerged that Park was involved in any of these scandals.

“It’s utterly irresponsible and cowardly” for the prime minister to step down in the middle of the rescue operation, Ahn Cheol-soo, a top leader of the main opposition party, New Politics Alliance for Democracy, said during a news conference on Sunday.

Before firing Chung, Park herself should offer an apology, Ahn said.

When she took office in February last year, one of the first things Park did was to change the name of the old Ministry of Public Administration and Security to the Ministry of Security and Public Administration. By putting “security” up front, Park was stressing that her government was dedicated to securing the safety of the people, officials said at the time.

As of Sunday morning, 115 ferry passengers remained missing. The number of the survivors, 174, has not changed for the past 11 days.

The official death toll was at 187 on Sunday.

Divers trying to reach inside the ship have been stymied by strong waves and rapid currents. Once inside, they face the more challenging task of making their way through narrow corridors clogged with debris to try to reach into small cabins in the front and a large communal sleeping hall in the back of the ship where many of the students were believed to have been trapped.

The nation has been plunged into a paroxysm of grief and shame. Loud cheering at baseball stadiums has been banned, and television comedy programs suspended. Schools canceled their spring-break trips.

When thousands of Buddhists paraded through downtown Seoul on Saturday evening, ahead of the celebration of Buddha’s birthday on May 6, many of them carried black-and-white lotus lanterns in memory of the dead.

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